Science & Tech

If you’re a coffee connoisseur, then you probably start your day with a cup of speciality, fair-trade Ethiopian brew. But how do you know if what you’re drinking is actually fair-trade or from Ethiopia? Blockchain technology could help with this conundrum.

Successful ecommerce business models have not yet adapted well to emerging-market conditions. In South Africa, limited access to the internet, combined with expensive data charges make it very difficult to reach a large audience with new online services. Despite rapid growth in market penetration over the last few years, just 52% of the population in South Africa currently has internet access, compared to 92.6% in UK.

Uber is an app designed by a multi-national transportation network company. The app connects you to hired drivers who will pick you up and drop you off at your desired location for a fee. Once you’ve signed up with your credit or debit card, your ride is cashless, cardless and paperless.

Despite being one of the most economically advanced countries on the continent, South Africa is struggling with a particularly pressing issue: its prison population, which is the largest in Africa at 158,000. To make matters worse, upon leaving prison, ex-offenders are presented with the bleak options of either unemployment or a menial low-paying job, which makes the allure of crime extremely powerful.

‘Loadshedding’ is a term that South Africans have begrudgingly added to their everyday vocabulary, with it becoming the norm for the electricity supply to be shut off in regularised blackouts. While the parastatal Eskom has assured that it is taking its own actions to resolve the energy shortages that make loadshedding necessary, it might be the work of individuals that prove to be most helpful.

Everyone has dreams and desires, but what if it were possible to experience our aspirations through our dreams? With the knowledge that we spend more than a third of our lives sleeping, wouldn’t it be beneficial to design a sleep habit that maximises this oneiric world? In fact, if someone told you that your dream state could potentially offer breakthroughs in all kinds of creative endeavours, would you be more interested then? If so, then welcome to the world of lucid dreaming.

Education is the key to reducing poverty and inequality as well as promoting growth of the economy. It is one of the most crucial aspects for the development of a country, and for many the way to a better life. But does the classroom really prepare youngsters for the future? Especially if we consider that the teaching method in today’s schools was designed for a totally different kind of student.

Everybody knows how difficult it can be to find a job nowadays, especially if you are young and without any work experience. The internet is the fastest way to search for job opportunities however, sometimes the reality is that these advertisements are nothing more than fake job opportunities. In other words – a scam!

On 20 May 2013, a computer analyst boarded a flight from Hawaii to Hong Kong. A few weeks later, The UK’s Guardian newspaper published information which exposed the National Security Agency’s (NSA) mass surveillance programmes. Programmes that survey everybody, everywhere, every day. The person who links these two events is of course Edward Snowden – the renowned whistleblower, regarded by some as a defender of liberty, yet by others as a traitor. Today, he is still on the USA’s most wanted list, but what motivates someone to risk everything and leak top secret government information?